Chapter 156: The Double Cross Part 2

Alliance Base 'Gateway', PU-9623, February 7th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Do we know if those 'rebel Jaffa' are actual rebels?" Catra asked after checking the message on her pad. "If Apophis is trying to make the Horde run into a prepared ambush by Earth, this would be an easy way to alert us."

"Well, it's kinda hard. They don't carry badges to prove their identity," Jack replied with a shrug. "And we haven't had contact with many rebel Jaffa."

"Rebels are often isolated. At best, they are organised in cells, but they are slow to trust anyone due to the danger of encountering a spy for the false gods. Bra'tac knew a number of rebels and sympathisers within Apophis's ranks, and even he, a known dissenter, was not trusted by many," Teal'c added. "Unfortunately, a lot of his knowledge died with him."

"He couldn't risk that knowledge falling into the wrong hands should any member of SG-1 become captured and taken over by a Goa'uld," Sha're said. "Apophis discussed your possible capture several times with Amaunet, and finding out if there were other traitors like Teal'c was one of his priorities. He assumed that your successes were at least partly due to such traitors."

"Well, looks like you left a lasting impression on him, Teal'c," Jack said with a grin. "Even though I'm a bit annoyed that he thinks we only kicked his ass thanks to inside help."

"Several of our most important successes were only achieved thanks to Teal'c and Bra'tac's help," Daniel pointed out.

"Yes, yes. But this makes us sound as if we're just spooks," Jack retorted.

"Having the enemy underestimate you is a great boon in war," Teal'c said. His expression didn't change from his usual stoic one, but he did sound a little smug to Catra's ears.

"So, we don't know if we can trust them," Adora summed up.

"If we can have Melog meet them, we should be able to find out if they wish us ill," Catra said. Melog should be able to sense their feelings somewhat, at least. "But even if they're genuine, they could still be duped by Apophis."

"While Apophis is fond of executing rebels, it is not beyond him to have spies infiltrate a rebel cell and then use that to root out more potential dissent," Teal'c said.

"Yeah, standard spook practice. Use the known spies to find their contacts," Jack said.

Catra nodded. "And you can feed them the information you want the enemy to have. Such as a warning about a coming attack by another enemy of yours."

"Ensuring that they run into a prepared enemy." Jack shook his head. "We'll have to put on a good show back home if we want to fool Apophis."

"Do the Tok'ra have any information?" Adora asked.

Jack glanced at Sam, who shook her head. "We haven't received any information from them about this."

"We'll ask them to look into this," Adora said.

Catra narrowed her eyes. "The talk between Apophis and Hordak was a private channel. If rebel Jaffa know about it, they either have tapped his private communications or Apophis shared the news with at least one of them."

"I do not think any rebel Jaffa have penetrated his communications to that degree," Teal'c said. "I was his Prime and did not have such access, and Apophis will have increased security after my defection."

Catra agreed with that. Not even the Tok'ra had managed that, and they had thousands of years of experience infiltrating the Goa'uld. Then again… "They could be lucky," she said. "But I think it's more likely that Apophis deliberately let that information leak."

"If he does, he risks his rival System Lords hearing about it as well," Sha're pointed out. "Although that, too, might be intended if he has plans to set them up as well."

"Send them after the Horde?" Jack snorted. "That would allow us to fight them with our forces while hiding the involvement of the other members of the Alliance."

It would also alert the Goa'uld that the Horde was attacking at least one of them, but they knew that when they started Plan Horde, as Jack called it. "We'll have to make efforts to show that this 'rogue Horde task force' is not going to indiscriminately all Goa'uld, or they might unite."

"Yes!" Adora nodded. "If they think this is between us and Apophis, they might stay out - or stab him in the back."

"Apophis knows that," Sha're said. "He might plan to use the threat of the Horde as a way to force the other System Lords into a truce and alliance against them. It would give him breathing room to consolidate and restore his forces while his rivals suffer losses."

"Every one of the false gods will attempt to use such a war to weaken their rivals," Teal'c said. "However, they are all aware of this and will plan accordingly. Overall, it will diminish the effectiveness of their forces, but we cannot count on them fracturing in a suicidal manner in the face of a common enemy."

"The System Lords aren't stupid," Daniel said. "They are used to each other." He took a deep breath, then bit his lower lip for a moment. "We might consider diplomatic approaches to prevent them from seeing us as a threat to all of them."

"Sounds good," Jack said with a grin. "If we can divide them, we can mop up the rest more easily."

Catra agreed but winced slightly. It was a good plan, but…

"We can't do that!" Adora blurted out.

…Adora wouldn't like it.

"Why can't we do that? It's a legitimate ruse of war." Jack O'Neill frowned. Fooling your enemy any way you could was a basic principle of warfare.

"You don't abuse diplomatic customs like that," Adora retorted. "Who could trust our word if we break it like that?"

"There's a difference between breaking your word or treaty and posing as someone else to fool your enemy," Jack pointed out. "That's like spying on your enemy or feeding them bad intel."

Catra nodded in agreement, Jack saw, but her expression looked a bit too resigned for his taste.

"It would not be dishonourable. Technically," Teal'c added, though his expression didn't make it clear if he approved or not.

"That's not the same. If we make a treaty under false pretences to entrap our enemies, it might be technically different, but it still casts doubt on all our treaties," Adora said. "Other people will always wonder if we're about to betray them as well."

Jack snorted. "We're talking about the Goa'uld. Anyone who's ever met them knows they aren't trustworthy and will betray you as soon as they think they can get away with it."

"Yes." Adora nodded. "But we're not the Goa'uld. What will the Asgard think? Or the Tok'ra?"

"The Asgard have made a treaty with the Goa'uld as well, Jack," Daniel butted in.

"And they know the Goa'uld would break it if they could or knew they could. They didn't build a snake maze on Cimmeria because they trusted them," Jack said. "And the Tok'ra are all about underhanded spy stuff."

"I'm not saying we should trust the Goa'uld. But we have to maintain a higher standard," Adora insisted with a frown. "We don't want a reputation for such treachery when we deal with other species. We want others to trust us."

"We also don't want to lose the war," Jack said.

"We won't lose the war if we respect the customs and the spirit of diplomacy," Adora said.

"But it could prolong the war and cause more casualties," Jack countered.

He saw Adora flinch at that. But a moment later, she shook her head and raised her chin. "In the long term, we lose even more if people don't trust us. If they expect us to stab them in the back, they'll react accordingly if there's a conflict - or a misunderstanding."

And that made Catra flinch.

"I have to agree," Daniel said, stabbing Jack in the back. "It's not just an undercover operation scaled up if you actually make a treaty under false pretences. That would be seen as dishonourable by many cultures." Jack frowned at him, but he shrugged. "It might be a double standard, and only gets applied if someone gets caught, but you can't ignore that such, ah, ploys tend to undermine your reputation as well as weaken the general trust in diplomacy."

Jack scowled. That made some sense, but it still felt like voluntarily hobbling yourself. It wasn't a war crime like murdering prisoners of war or civilians - which made things worse, anyway - but it would make it easier to defeat the snakes with the least number of losses.

He glanced at the others in the room. Daniel clearly thought Adora was correct. Catra seemed to disagree, or at least have some doubts, but she clearly wouldn't go against Adora's wishes either. Teal'c's expression was unreadable, and Sha're hadn't said anything yet so her scowling could be aimed at anyone. Both wanted the snakes to be crushed, of course, but Teal'c prized honour, and while Sha're wouldn't blindly follow Daniel, she might weigh the political cost of such a deception as more important than the military advantages it might provide. And Carter would claim that she was a scientist and not a spook. Jack didn't count on Entrapta to take a side in this anyway.

Not that the Alliance was a democracy, of course. Adora was the Supreme Commander, and you'd need a lot of political support in the Alliance to force her to adopt such a plan. If the princesses agreed with Adora - and Jack was pretty sure most would - then that wouldn't happen.

He sighed. "Let's discuss this when we know more about the situation. We have a few rebel Jaffa to contact."

"They are currently on PZ-9132, an uninhabited planet according to our files," Carter said. It had a breathable atmosphere, at least.

"We don't have spy bots there, but if the Jaffa dial in, we can route the comm to us here," Entrapta added, "and talk to them with some lag."

"Giving away that we're not near the Stargate," Jack said.

"We don't want to give that kind of intel to people who might be working, knowingly or not, for Apophis," Catra said.

"Then we travel back. We need to know more about this," Adora said.

"And we need to decide how we play the Horde attack on Earth," Jack reminded her. "Before Apophis's stealth ships arrive there."

She frowned but nodded. "We can do that on the way. Let's go."

Alliance Forward Base, PU-9841, February 8th, 2000 (Earth Time)

The forward base securing the Stargate hadn't changed since they had passed through two days ago. Prefabricated walls surrounded a bunker containing the Stargate and several auxiliary bunkers housing the garrison, supplies and command and control structures. There were no heavy weapon emplacements - the ground forces' task was to keep intruders away and handle assaults through the gate, not defend against a planetary invasion from orbit. That was what the flotilla in the system was for.

Still, Adora knew that while it wasn't a huge commitment, it was still a sizable force just to secure a quick way to reach PU-9623. Relatively quick - it still took a ship a day to make the trip. And while the flotilla wasn't expected to defeat an all-out attack by a major Goa'uld fleet, it still had to be large enough to be able to stall such an invasion long enough for the garrison to evacuate through the Stargate - provided said Stargate wasn't blocked by another gate dialling in, of course.

All in all, it tied up a significant number of forces and logistical efforts just to cut down on travel time for key personnel such as Adora and her friends to PU-9623 and the bases on it. That hadn't been too much of a concern when the Alliance had expected the operation to be a temporary incursion, perhaps a large-scale raid to destroy whatever Apophis was preparing there, but now that they had to protect Beta, things had changed.

"We need to move this Stargate," Adora said as the shuttle carrying them touched down on the landing pad inside the base.

"I've been saying that for some time," Catra commented as she got up from her seat. "As have others."

Jack made an agreeing noise, and Adora rolled her eyes. He had been less chatty than usual during the trip. He was probably still annoyed about her stance on diplomacy.

"But we'll have to thoroughly check if there really are no natives on the planet," Adora went on.

"Scans didn't show any settlements or other signs of a population," Sam said.

"They could be hiding - they're close to the Goa'uld Empire and might even be refugees," Daniel added. "If they don't use Naquadah or other advanced technology and are a small community, they would be hard to detect, right?"

"Yes," Sha're agreed. "The Goa'uld would usually not care much about a few slaves fleeing, at least not to the point of expending a significant effort to track them down. If they hide underground or under cover like in forests or jungles, they would be safe from anything but a dedicated hunt."

Adora pressed her lips together as the ramp was lowered. To live like that, in permanent fear that ships descended on you from the skies, that soldiers would come to hunt you down, should you be detected… That would be worse than growing up in the Horde.

"Even with our best sensors, it will take a long time to check the planet," Sam said.

That didn't matter. They had to do it. They couldn't take the Stargate if there were people it belonged to. Adora returned the salute of the officer in charge of the base - Major Hawthorn, an American - and started formulating the orders for the flotilla and garrison to search for natives.

Samantha Carter was secretly quite glad it wasn't up to her to scan the planet for natives. It wasn't that difficult, but it was very, very tiresome to run scans covering an entire planet. Scans detailed enough to find not only humans but potentially other sapient life forms took time. Sure, you could do something else while you waited for the scanners to finish their work, but only within limits. There were always checks and adjustments to make. Potential hits to examine further before they could be dismissed - the software was good but not perfect, and Sam knew you couldn't fully trust any automated system for such tasks. Not all the checks were strictly necessary, of course, but Sam would feel as if she was neglecting her duties if she didn't focus on the task.

No, it would be up to the clones in the ship to handle this, with support from the ground garrison. However, if they found something out of the norm, Sam knew she would be called in if she was still on the planet. If it was something dangerous or exotic, she'd be called in even if she wasn't on the planet.

And that suited her just fine.

In the meantime, she focused on the Stargate ahead of her. It was, as usual, blocked to prevent unauthorised access. Not with something as sophisticated as the iris back on Earth, but by being mounted on a frame that lowered it to ground, face down, when not in use. Simple and efficient, perfect for such field bases.

But if they wanted to talk to those Rebel Jaffa - well, if they wanted to let them call in, at least - they needed a barrier that allowed the wormhole to form but prevented physical travel through it. And lacking an iris, Sam would have to install the next best thing - a force field strong enough to handle that.

Fortunately, Entrapta and Sam had already solved that problem - a bot of Emily's size could handle that with a modified force shield projector. At least long enough for all practical purposes. All Sam had to do was to check if the field was properly placed and stable.

And it was. She switched it off, then turned to the General and Adora. "Force field ready to deploy."

"Alright!" The general nodded. "Dial in."

Sam pushed a button and the Stargate rose into a vertical position, the force field already securing it.

Daniel started entering the address on the D.H.D., and the Stargate began to spin, locking chevron after chevron. Soon, the wormhole formed, then stabilised - and Sam deactivated the forcefield. With the wormhole active, travel to the gate here was impossible so the field was not needed right now. "The Stargate is open."

"Let's call our rebel Jaffa," the General said.

"Opening a channel," Sam replied. The communicator quickly established a connection with another on the other side. "Frequencies and codes match," she reported.

The General nodded and turned towards the screen linked to the communicator. "Put them through."

Sam did a last check to ensure Adora, Catra and Melog weren't visible on the camera feed - they were known to Apophis after the raid on his palace, but they didn't want to show their hand at the start of the meeting - then accepted the video connection.

A Jaffa with a scar across his forehead - a wound from a blade or claw, Sam noted, not from removing a brand - appeared, in front of a landscape without any signs of inhabitation and only a few scraggly trees. He inclined his head. "Greetings, Tau'ri. Teal'c."

"Hello," the General replied.

Teal'c nodded as well but didn't address the Jaffa by his name. So, he didn't recognise him. That meant the Jaffa hadn't been a high-ranking member of Apophis's forces when Teal'c had been his First Prime.

"Hello." Daniel smiled.

Sha're, however, had narrowed her eyes and took a step forward. "Kul'et."

The Jaffa - apparently Kul'et - tilted his head to the side. "I know who you are, but I do not know your name."

"Sha're."

Daniel reached out and caught her hand, Sam noted.

"So…" The General looked at Sha're, then at Kul'et. "You know each other."

"He was a guard at Apophis's palace. A low-ranking guard," Sha're said. "He often punished slaves."

"On my superiors' orders," Kul'et replied, looking at her steadily.

"Just following orders," the General said, baring his teeth.

"Like others." Kul'et nodded towards Teal'c.

Teal'c returned the nod. "Indeed." He didn't flinch.

Sam saw that Catra tensed up, though, and Adora patted her shoulders while Melog pressed against her leg.

"But now you've rebelled against Apophis," the General went on.

"Yes." Kul'et straightened. "I had the opportunity to desert when I was sent to serve on another world. I and a few others took it."

Sam frowned. A demotion? If he had served at Apophis's palace, he might have been amongst those Jaffa punished after the raid that freed Sha're. It wouldn't be an unusual reason for someone to switch sides, though it didn't make for the most loyal allies.

"And you've heard about a threat to our world as well," the General went on with a polite smile. "Quite fortunate." He didn't bother to hide the scepticism.

"It was fortunate indeed," Kul'et replied. "A friend of mine overheard Apophis's orders to his Prime and told me. News of a new enemy spread quickly."

Sam glanced at Teal'c, who inclined his head slightly again in apparent agreement.

"Apophis needs to work on his opsec," the General commented with a grin. "I won't complain though when it makes our life easier."

"Then you are prepared for this attack?" Kul'et tilted his head to the side.

Is he fishing for intel, Sam wondered, or is this mere curiosity - or even genuine concern?

The General snorted. "We've been expecting an attack ever since we sent Apophis running last time."

"According to what I heard, this enemy destroyed a far more powerful force than two Ha'taks," Kul'et said.

"Thank you for the warning. We appreciate it." The General's confident smile didn't change. "But enough about us. What about you?"

Instead of responding, Kul'et raised his eyebrow remarkably like Teal'c liked to do.

"What are your plans now?" the General elaborated. "You've deserted from Apophis and warned us. We owe you for that. What do you want?"

Kul'et stood ramrod straight. "We wish to know where we can find the Goddess She-Ra so we can enter her service. She has proven to be far more deserving of our worship than Apophis."

Sam glanced at Adora and saw that she was sighing. Catra was smirking, though - and Melog had changed colour, indicating amusement as well.

The General glanced at Adora as well, and, after a moment, she nodded, expression firm again.

He grinned in return. "Well, you're in luck, Kul'et."

Adora stepped into the field of view of the camera. "Hello."

And Kul'et dropped out of view of his camera. "Goddess."

"Did he just kneel down?" the General asked.

"That would be an expected reaction to meeting a goddess, Jack," Daniel said.

Adora sighed again.

Catra snickered at the sight of an empty screen, but it wasn't that funny. Well, it was pretty funny to see Adora's reaction - her love was muttering about not being a goddess as if that would impress anyone - but Kul'et dropping to his knees didn't actually prove he was honest. Apophis knew about people worshipping Adora as a goddess after his palace had been raided and she had healed half his capital when she had restored magic to the planet. It didn't take a mastermind to connect Adora to Earth when she had been with SG-1. So, 'pretend to worship She-Ra' would be a no-brainer for any spy of his trying to infiltrate the rebel Jaffa - or Earth. But that didn't take into account that there were ways to check if the faith was genuine.

She glanced at Melog, who remained at her side.

Funny.

That made her snort again. "We'll have to meet them." If only so Melog could take a closer look at them - he couldn't sense their emotions through a Stargate.

"If this is a trap…" Jack whispered.

Adora meanwhile took a step forward. "Please raise, Kul'et."

"As you command, Goddess."

Catra resisted the brief urge to tell him that 'Your Divine Highness' was the official address in the Church of She-Ra. She'd let Priest do that if the guy turned out to be an honest deserter. Heh, what if there was a schism in the Church over how to call Adora? It wasn't as if they listened to Adora's wishes in the matter, so she wouldn't be able to settle it…

On the other hand, church schisms tended to become very violent according to Earth history, so maybe that wouldn't be funny at all.

"I am She-Ra, Princess of Power. I am no goddess," Adora said.

Kul'et didn't even flinch. He bowed his head instead. "There is no need to test my faith, Goddess. Your deeds prove your nature."

Catra narrowed her eyes. Priest and his missionaries went on about how you couldn't have faith without doubt, so Adora denying her divinity was necessary to have faith in her, but how would Kul'et come up with this by himself? If Apophis knew about the Church of She-Ra, he'd also know that the clones were allied with Earth. And if Priest had somehow sent undercover missionaries to Apophis's realm, the Alliance would know about it. Probably.

She made a mental note to look into this.

Adora sighed, and Catra reached over to squeeze her hand while the tip of her tail ran over the back of Adora's thigh.

"How many are in your group?" Adora asked.

"We are but three, Goddess, but we know that there are others still within Apophis's ranks who worship you as well, and their numbers are growing. We decided to desert to warn Earth about this new threat while they stayed. If all of us had attempted to desert, it would have been too great a risk."

A likely story, and yet… Catra couldn't help thinking it was a bit too smooth.

Explains too much.

Melog agreed, then. Of course, Kul'et had grown up in Apophis's service. He probably had to quickly learn to come up with excuses for any potential failure when facing his god - or goddess. Still…

"Let's send in the spy bot and check for an ambush," Catra whispered.

Jack nodded and turned to Sam. "Send in the scout."

Outside the camera's field of view, the spy bot waiting next to Sam started to hover, then flickered and vanished as the stealth generator went active.

Catra watched and caught a slight ripple when the invisible bot passed through the gate.

"Who else is with you?" Adora asked.

"Man'ot and Bre'kul, Goddess," Kul'et replied.

Catra glanced at the screen in front of Sam. The bot was transmitting, and she could see two more Jaffa waiting, one on each side of the gate.

They stepped into view, bowing their heads. They looked a little younger than Kul'et. And a bit more nervous. "Goddess."

"I'm not detecting any other life forms nearby nor any hidden energy signatures in the vicinity," Sam reported. "The bot doesn't detect any ships in orbit either."

That didn't have to mean anything, of course - the bot's sensors were good, but it wasn't a deep space spy bot meant to spot enemy vessels.

But it was, as Catra had known, good enough for Adora. "I'm coming to meet you personally," she told Kul'et, already walking towards the ramp.

"Goddess!" Kul'et fell down on his knees again - Catra watched it on the feed from the bot - as did the others.

Then Melog and she went after Adora. She might not be She-Ra, able to tank whatever the three Jaffa were carrying, and probably whatever might be hiding in orbit, but she wouldn't let Adora alone on another planet.

The air on the other side was dry and smelt slightly stale, somehow. Which was strange since they were on an open plain surrounded by desert. Well, they weren't here for that. All three Jaffa were still kneeling, not even looking at Adora.

"It is an honour to meet you, Goddess. We have dreamt of this but dared not hope…" Kul'et said.

Hate and fear.

Melog softly growled at Kul'et, then turned to the other two.

Happy. Relieved.

So, one spy and two dupes.

Catra bared her teeth in a smile and stepped closer to Adora.

Gate Area, PZ-9132, February 8th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill couldn't help feeling a little apprehensive when he stepped through the Stargate. Sure, Carter had scouted the other side with her spy bot and found nothing, and Adora had already stepped through the Stargate and nothing had happened, but you could never be completely sure there was no trap. Especially when it came to the snakes. And this Kul'et just was a bit too smooth for Jack. So, he was prepared for an ambush when he walked down the ramp.

Not that he would show anything but confidence, of course, the better to unnerve his enemies and bolster the morale of his troops. "So… nice place here. Love what you did with the porch."

The three Jaffa blinked, confused, Adora frowned at him, and Catra snorted. She was tense, though. And so was Melog - the alien's illusionary fur was bristling, and they were glaring at Kul'et as if they wanted to pounce on the Jaffa and savage him.

Which meant that Catra was feeling the same. So, Kul'et was a bad guy - Melog had come through. Fortunately, Kul'et wasn't aware of Melog's powers or he'd probably realise that the jig was up.

"Just a joke," Jack said.

"A bad joke," Adora added.

Jack made a point of pouting but used the distraction to make eye contact with Catra and raise his eyebrows.

She nodded at Kul'et and signed 'one enemy' behind her back, then signed 'two' and 'friendly'.

Jack kept smiling. So, Kul'et was a spy. And didn't know they had seen through his act. Any spook back home would claim that spies you knew about must be left in place so you could feed them misinformation. They loved playing such games.

But this was a bit bigger than the Cold War. The stakes were a lot higher, and the most crucial information - the Alliance with Etheria - couldn't easily be hidden from someone you supposedly trusted. They would have to keep Kul'et away from any important base much less Earth. And they would have to keep such tight control over what and whom Kul'et could see that, as a trained spy, he would very quickly realise that he had been made.

So, time to do the fun thing. Jack bared his teeth in a wide grin. "Say, Kul'et, did you get a cool secret decoder ring when you were trained as a spy by Apophis? I've always wanted one, but I never got one as a kid."

The two other Jaffa blinked, mouths hanging open. Kul'et did the same but blurted out: "What? I'm not a spy. I was a guard."

Adora frowned at him, and Catra said: "We know you're a spy. You can't hide your true allegiance from us."

Kul'et face twisted into a snarl and a zat appeared in his hand, but before he could raise the weapon, he was buried under about two hundred pounds of alien cat. Three hundred if you included Catra breaking said arm a moment later.

The other two Jaffa were frozen, then dropped to their knees again. "We didn't know, goddess! He fooled us!"

"Please believe us!"

And Adora, as expected, turned to beam at them. "Don't worry - I know you two are honest."

Relief - and awe - appeared on their faces for a brief moment before they bent down again, pressing their foreheads into the ground.

"Yes, Goddess!"

Jack shook his head as he moved to search and cuff Kul'et. Adora really needed to learn how to talk to impressionable Jaffa and other people without making them think she was a goddess who could see into their souls or something.

"And she wonders why people worship her," Catra muttered as they went through Kul'et's clothes together, removing several hidden gadgets.

Jack snorted again, then took a look at a miniature communicator that actually looked a little bit like a secret decoder ring if you squinted. "Looks like Apophis did hand out the good stuff to his spies."

He tapped his radio button. "Anything we didn't find, Carter?"

"No, sir. You should have everything according to our scanner."

Jack grinned. It was good to know he could still search an enemy without a high-tech scanner to help. "Let's get him back through the gate so we can interrogate him properly."

Kul'et gasped. "Praised be Apo…urk!"

Jak drew back - Catra had just broken the Jaffa's jaw and was pulling it open, revealing blood and… foam? Kul'et was jerking, and his eyes were rolling back…

Jack cursed under his breath. Secret communicator rings and hollow teeth filled with poison - Apophis was hitting all the cliches.

"No!" Adora yelled, raising her sword to point at the sky.

"No!" Jack spat, tensing. "Not again!"

But he could already feel her releasing the magic of this world.

And there it came. Jack clenched his teeth when Adora pointed her sword at Kul'et, bathing the spy in golden light that left him staring open-mouthed at her. The foam was gone as well, vapourized, Jack noted.

And then Adora turned, and Jack felt and saw the magic rush out of her, like a flood washing over the ground - and shooting into the air. And for a moment, he felt as if he could lift the Stargate and carry it around.

Then the desert around them changed, plants shooting out of the ground. Grass, bushes, flowers. Trees. Instead of in the middle of a desert, they were now standing in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by a thick, lush forest, and the stale, dry air was now a gentle breeze with a flowery scent.

"All it lacks is Bambi and Disney would sue," Jack muttered as he took a few deep breaths.

Catra's ears twitched. "What about birds?"

"Birds?" Jack blinked, then frowned. Now that she mentioned it, he could hear birds chirping. So, maybe there was an alien Bambi in the woods as well.

The two other Jaffa stared at the sudden change of scenery, then went back to pressing their foreheads against the ground.

"Goddess!"

"Praised be She-Ra!"

But Jack looked at Kul'et. The spy was trembling, his lips moving without making a sound, and his eyes darted around until they locked on Adora, who was lowering her sword with a sigh before turning to frown at Kul'et.

"We don't torture prisoners. We don't kill spies, either. You will be treated humanely. There is no need to kill yourself."

Kul'et was staring at her with wide, frightened eyes.

"And we won't let you kill yourself," Catra added.

"G…. goddess," Kul'et whispered.

Melog changed colours and looked at Catra, and Jack heard her chuckle for a moment. "Looks like you converted him, Adora."

Adora blinked at her, then looked at the trembling Kul'et, who was trying to bow but was still held in Catra's grip, then at the two other Jaffa on the ground, and finally at the forest surrounding them.

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'Oh'," Jack commented.

Alliance Forward Base, PU-9841, February 8th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"You partially terraformed the planet." Sam sounded fascinated, in Adora's opinion. "The forest covers a similar area as the original Fright Zone on Etheria, as far as we can tell - the spy bot's sensor range is a bit limited at the moment, I've requested more bots to explore the planet but they will take some time to arrive. More importantly, it seems that you changed the atmosphere. It's now much more humid as before, at least in the gate area. We need more readings, though, and samples to check if it's a lasting change and what exactly happened. If the oceans are affected as well, for example."

Adora winced at Sam's words. She hadn't meant to do that. "I only wanted to save Kul'et's life," she whispered. He shouldn't have to die because he was ordered by Apophis to avoid being captured.

"Well, you did. But I think you went a bit overboard," Jack said in a dry tone. "Changing the entire world to save a spy is a bit much."

"It is an uninhabited world," Adora defended herself. "I didn't alter someone's home without asking them."

Catra snorted, leaning against the console next to the Stargate. "You wouldn't have let him die anyway."

Adora pouted at her. "Well, no, I wouldn't have." That would have been wrong. Besides, they had to restore magic to all the worlds from where the First Ones had taken it away anyway. And there had been something wrong with the planet's atmosphere. Adora didn't know what exactly, but most of the magic had gone into healing that.

"But all that magic…" Jack trailed off with a frown, and Adora saw him rub his arms.

"Are you OK?" she asked. Had the magic she had done hurt him?

"Peachy," he quickly said. "Just a bit tingly still from all the magic thrown around."

"Oh?" Sam looked up from her screens and turned to Jack. "'Tingly'?"

"Just… a figure of speech," Jack said, looking warily at her.

"You might have been more seriously affected by Adora's magic, sir," Sam said, taking a step towards Jack. "We need to examine you."

"I'm fine, Carter." Jack crossed his arms.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I think that remains to be determined, sir. Healing magic - shouldn't have any adverse effects on your health, but there could be some changes."

"Changes?" Jack looked very wary, and Adora bit her lower lip. She hadn't meant to hurt anyone!

"Changes. Adora seems to have created an entire ecosystem on the planet, including animals," Sam explained. "We need to get genetic samples for analysis so we can determine if they're copies of existing species or new species - maybe evolved from present species, though we don't know what those are either. I assume that biologists will be busy for years on the planet."

Catra snorted again, and Adora blushed. She hadn't meant to do that. She had just wanted to save Kul'et.

"Maybe we should name the planet 'Adora's World'," Jack suggested. "If it's going to be so important."

"I think we should leave that to whoever eventually settles there," Adora said. A world named after her? That was… too much.

"Jack's just trying to distract Sam from scanning him," Catra said.

Adora frowned at him. As did Sam. He grinned, though it looked a bit weak.

"Sir…" Sam shook her head. "We need to know if you were affected."

Jack sighed. "Alright. Do your thing, Carter. At least you don't use needles."

"I'll need to take blood samples as well, sir."

"Gah."